Cover up if you're planning to visit Borobudur and more

Readers planning to visit the ancient temples of Java like Borobudur and Prambanan will soon have to observe a dress code, or at least not be clad in skimpy miniskirts. The management company overseeing the sites are enforcing a dress code so as to preserve a sense of respect on what are, after all, sacred sites. It’s nice to see such a sense of respect for Buddhist and Hindu temples in such a predominantly Muslim country.

Mini skirts might be sexy, but they are becoming increasingly unfashionable at Javanese temples.

After Borobudur Temple recently required visitors wearing mini skirts and shorts to wrap themselves with sarongs provided by the temple management, other temples, such as the Prambanan and Ratu Boko temples, will enforce similar ban soon.

The management company in charge of the temples, PT Borobudur, Prambanan and Ratu Boko Temples Recreation Park *TWC BP & RB*, decided to impose the ban in hopes of increasing visitors’ respect toward the temples as important historical sites inherited from ancestors as well as a move to preserve the sites.

Reportedly, many visitors seem careless about the temple’s preservation, with some climbing up the stupas to take pictures, which can inflict damage.

“By wearing decent clothing, we intend to encourage visitors to respect the priceless heritage sites,” said the company’s president director Purnomo Siswoprasetyo on Thursday.